A terrier ordered to be destroyed last August under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act was reprieved when a judge at Southwark Crown Court decided it was a Staffordshire not a pit bull. Legal costs are estimated at pounds 50,000.

Danielle Rolfe, 18 months, suffered serious facial injuries when she was attacked by her family's Staffordshire bull terrier at her home in West Bromwich. The dog was put down.